The present disclosure relates to computing and data processing, and in particular, to measuring traffic condition based on mobile device connection information.
Measuring traffic condition is important: knowing how fast or slow others are traveling on a highway or a local street, a user can adjust his/her driving route on the fly to cut commute time.
Difficulties abound, however. One technical problem is that, in some cases, measuring traffic condition relies on roads being equipped with speed sensors and the availability of speed sensor data to the public. Some roads (e.g., service streets or county roads in rural areas) are sometimes constructed without speed sensors. Even if speed sensors are available, data collected from these sensors may be restricted for governmental use only, and thus not made available to end users.
Another technical problem is that, in other cases, measuring traffic condition relies on GPS devices, either as a smart phone component or a stand-alone device. Some mobile devices (e.g., traditional cellular phones), however, may not be equipped with a GPS device, and thus incapable of providing and receiving traffic conditions this way.
There is therefore a need for improved techniques for measuring traffic condition based on mobile device connection information.